PRT Record?? Remote mailserver won't accept my mail.

As you know, normal DNS takes a hostname and returns an address. There is also RDNS (Reverse DNS) - RDNS takes an IP address and returns a hostname - it uses PTR (PoinTeR records) to do this.

For mail to work you have to set rdns - this is done in the Linode Platform Manager rather than with zoneedit - because you're doing things backwards: associating and IP address (owned by linode) with your domain (owned by you).

Mailservers look up PTR records to stop basic spam techniques - spammers liying about hostnames to try and avoid detection.

Hope this helps,

Dan

@TehDan:

As you know, normal DNS takes a hostname and returns an address. There is also RDNS (Reverse DNS) - RDNS takes an IP address and returns a hostname - it uses PTR (PoinTeR records) to do this.

For mail to work you have to set rdns - this is done in the Linode Platform Manager rather than with zoneedit - because you're doing things backwards: associating and IP address (owned by linode) with your domain (owned by you).

Mailservers look up PTR records to stop basic spam techniques - spammers liying about hostnames to try and avoid detection.

Hope this helps,

Dan

Thanks for that! Can you direct me to Linode Platform Manager so that I can make the corrections?

In my "member's home" page, I have already set the reverse DNS, but it sounds like you are refering to something else…

Thanks!

Jeff

Members page is the right place (LPM is just the fancy name…), the change can take about 24 hours though.

Try typing "host " at your command prompt to check your RDNS - you'll either see your domain (in which case its done) or a linode domain (in which case the changes haven't propogated yet.

if you don't have host installed, its in the bind9-host package in debian, you can also check them online at http://www.samspade.org/t/

I was just impatient. You were right, after 24 hours looks like my messages are now being delivered!

Thanks!